The Buffalo Sabres will wrap up their 2020-21 season series with the Washington Capitals on Thursday night with the eighth and final installment at Capital One Arena in the nation's capital.
So far this season, Buffalo is just 1-5-1 against the Capitals, with the team's only win coming back on Jan. 24 with a 4-3 shootout victory in Washington, D.C. In that contest, Jack Eichel scored the lone goal in the first round of the shootout, while goalie Linus Ullmark stopped all three Capitals shooters to earn the team its second win of the year.
Fast forward nearly three months and a lot has changed with the Sabres since that last game. The head coach is gone, Taylor Hall, Eric Staal and Brandon Montour are all gone, Eichel is out for the rest of the season, and injuries have completely dismantled the goaltending position. That's only just a few differences to point out.
In three games against the Capitals since that win on Jan. 24, the Sabres are 0-3-0, while being outscored 13-4 .
In the most recent matchup with Washington this past Friday, the Sabres got some subpar goaltending from Dustin Tokarski, but the team managed to stick around and make things complicated for the visiting Capitals. The final score ended with Washington winning in regulation, 4-3, but it was much more of a contest than the game prior between these two teams, where Buffalo was completely manhandled, 6-0 at KeyBank Center in the 11th of 18-consecutive losses.
The Sabres will be forced to turn to Tokarski again on Thursday night, as Ullmark is nursing another lower-body injury suffered early in Tuesday night's 3-2 shootout loss to the Boston Bruins. Interim head coach Don Granato did not have any update on Ullmark's condition following Thursday's morning skate, and said he will not have any update likely until the team returns to Buffalo on Friday.
Without Ullmark in goal for the Sabres, Buffalo goaltending has gone 1-19-4 this season with an abysmal 3.57 goals-against average and an .891 save percentage. Buffalo's only win without Ullmark came in the first win of the season over the Philadelphia Flyers back on Jan. 18.
Tokarski is still searching for his first NHL win since Dec. 12, 2015 while with the Montreal Canadiens. The 31-year-old netminder is 0-4-2 this season with a 3.54 goals-against average and a .904 save percentage. He nearly earned that elusive win on Tuesday night, as he helped the Sabres earn a point against the Bruins in relief of Ullmark.
With Tokarski starting on Thursday and goaltender Michael Houser likely getting the promotion from the taxi squad, that opens up a goaltending spot on the roster that would likely be given to Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen from Rochester. However, Luukkonen suffered his own injury on Wednesday night with the Rochester Americans, which now creates a bit of a conundrum with goaltending depth in the organization.
The Sabres also got the news on Wednesday that Eichel will miss the rest of the 2020-21 season due to a herniated disk in his neck. The Buffalo captain has been out of the lineup since suffering the injury back on March 7 in a loss to the New York Islanders.
The only other injury note for the Sabres heading into Thursday game relates to forward Riley Sheahan, who left Tuesday night's game after taking a big hit from Bruins forward Nick Ritchie in the first period. Sheahan was able to return for the second period to test out his upper-body injury, but ended up leaving the game again and sitting out the rest of the contest.
Granato said Thursday the plan is to sit out Sheahan to give him some time to rest and heal up the injury a bit more. Tobias Rieder will re-enter the lineup in his place, after being a healthy scratch against the Bruins.
As for the Capitals, they will look to close out the season series with the Sabres without having lost a game in regulation to the NHL's worst team. Washington has gone 6-0-1 so far against Buffalo, and are hoping to use Thursday's game as a chance to stay atop the East Division standings.
Washington has gone an impressive 28-11-4 this season, and currently lead the Islanders in the division by just two points. The Pittsburgh Penguins currently sit four points behind the Capitals in third place, while the Bruins hold on to the fourth and final playoff spot in the division with 50 points.
The Capitals made, arguably, the biggest move at the NHL Trade Deadline on Monday, acquiring forward Anthony Mantha from the Detroit Red Wings to add some more scoring to the lineup. In return, Washington sent Detroit playmaking forward Jakub Vrana, depth forward Richard Panik, a first round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft and a second round pick in the 2022 NHL Draft.
In his first game with the Capitals on Tuesday night, Mantha made his impact known, scoring a goal and adding an assist in a 6-1 win over the Flyers.
Washington ranks only second in the entire NHL to the Colorado Avalanche (154) in team scoring this season with 152 goals.
It should be to no one's surprise that Alex Ovechkin is right at the top of the goal scoring list with 22 goals in 39 games. The 35-year-old winger continues to make history this season, as he is just three goal back of Hall of Famer, Marcel Dionne for fifth on the NHL's all-time goal scoring list. 267 of his 728 career goals have come while on the power play, which is just seven away from tying former Sabres forward Dave Andreychuk (274) for the most in NHL history.
Leading the way for Washington in scoring this season is Nicklas Backstrom, who has 44 points (14+30) in 43 games. Backstrom currently ranks tied for 13th in the NHL in points this season, 15 points behind Edmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid, who leads the league with 69 points.
This season against Buffalo, Backstrom has been dominant, scoring five goals and three assists for eight points in seven games. In his career against the Sabres, the 33-year-old has produced well with 37 points (13+24) in 49 games.
Thursday night will mark a major milestone for Backstrom, as he will play in his 1,000th career game in the NHL, all spend with the Capitals. He was the fourth overall pick of Washington back in the 2006 NHL Draft.
Washington will turn to Vitek Vanecek in goal once again on Thursday, as goalie Ilya Samsonov is expected to be out day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
Vanecek has gotten the majority of the workload for Washington in net this season, appearing in 29 games with a 17-7-3 record, a 2.60 goals-against average, a .913 save percentage and one shutout. The 25-year-old has started in six of the seven games against Buffalo this season, going 5-0-1 with a 1.79 goals-against average and a .941 save percentage.
One other note from the Capitals is the team re-signed former Sabres forward Conor Sheary to a two-year contract extension on Wednesday worth $3 million. The 28-year-old was a free agent signing of the Capitals this offseason and has performed well in 40 games this year, scoring 11 goals and eight assists for 19 points.
Pregame coverage on WGR starts at 6 p.m. ET with Mike Schopp, where you will hear Paul Hamilton, as well as pregame sound from Granato, Kyle Okposo and newcomer Drake Caggiula. Faceoff is slated for just after 7 p.m. ET with Dan Dunleavy and Rob Ray on the call.
In addition, Sabres general manager Kevyn Adams is scheduled to address the media Thursday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. ET to formally introduce Jason Karmanos as the team's new associate general manager.